Sony Ericsson moves down market

ERICSSON CLAIMED its EMP (Ericsson Mobile Platforms) division was a bigger supplier of W-CDMA baseband chips than Qualcomm and said it will continue to compete against other rivals such as Nokia and Freescale.

The comment emerged as the firm explained to analysts and journalists its thinking behind its move into entry-level handsets, which it defines as a sub-€75 price tag for selling to operators.

It clarified its position by saying that it doesn't intend to compete in the ULCH (Ultra Low Cost Handset) sector which it regards as having a selling point of between €30 and €50.

To move into the entry-level sector, Sony Ericsson recently struck a deal with French manufacturer, Sagem, to work on the mobile phone software and with TI to supply the chips.

Sony Ericsson engineers have already started to work alongside Sagem employees. The deal has the full blessing of both Sony and Ericsson, the company said.

The reason for getting into this sector is clear. Ericsson itself estimates that there will be 5.5 billion mobile phone users by 2012. That compares to around three billion today.

Where were these extra 2.5 billion users going to come from? Well, for starters Ericsson foresees India growing from 150 million users to 400 million and China from 400 million to 800 million.

Sony Ericsson also claimed that entry-level phones could be sold into mature markets.

At the opposite end, Sony Ericsson expects the first result of its acquisition of UI company, UIQ, to bear first fruit with its forthcoming P1 device.

Sony Ericsson's president, Miles Flint, wouldn't be drawn on which other handset manufacturer is going to release a touchscreen phone based on UIQ's software but he said the announcement is coming soon.

He also revealed that there would be an announcement concerning a tie up between Sony Ericsson and the Sony Connect online music store on November 6th. µ

See also
Ultra-low cost phones to boost 3G networks